There was plenty of excitement surrounding the start of the 2024-25 hockey season in western New York.
With Lindy Ruff back behind the bench and joined by former Amerks coach Seth Appert , the Buffalo Sabres have designs on ending the longest playoff drought in NHL history, while down in Rochester, there is a buzz about a young, fast and energetic team now being led by 36-year-old Michael Leone , the second-youngest coach in the AHL.
Well, the Sabres have scored a grand total of three goals in losing their first three games, and Friday night at Blue Cross Arena, the Amerks dropped their season opener 3-2 to North Division rival Belleville.
The Amerks scored the first and last goals of the game, but the Senators managed three in between, the last coming 4:17 into the third period which proved to be the winner.
“The second period wasn't great,” Leone said. “Especially with the long change, we didn't do a really good job managing the puck. It cost us on the second goal. I thought the last 10 (minutes of the game) were really good when we started to play more desperate, but I thought at times we just didn't play the way we were playing in the preseason. I think it's a good learning experience for sure, the waves of the game. And I just thought the second period got away from us a bit.”
Here’s what happened in the game:
First period: Amerks 1, Senators 1
Josh Dunne enjoyed his debut game as an Amerks as he scored the team’s first goal of the season at 12:00, and he almost had the second in the dying seconds of the period but after taking a gorgeous stretch pass from Kyle Clague, he was stopped on a breakaway by Belleville goalie Leevi Merilainen.
On Dunne’s goal, Ryan Johsnon broke up a rush in the Amerks end and quickly worked the puck up the left wing boards. Niktor Neuchev corralled it in the Senators zone and spotted Dunne cruising down the middle by himself. Dunne took his perfect pass and roofed one over Merilainen’s glove.
“It was a great play by Neuch on that one to make that pass, it's a hard pass to make, and it was right on the tape,” Dunne said. “So I just wanted to put that on net and it worked out.”
The 25-year-old Dunne, who played college hockey at Clarkson, had spent his first four pro seasons in the Columbus Blue Jackets system and got into 14 NHL games, but the bulk of his time was spent in the AHL with the Cleveland Monsters. He gives the Amerks some needed size up front at 6-foot-4 and 211 pounds, but he can also score as he had a 20-goal season for Cleveland in 2022-23.
“He's outstanding,” Leone said of Dunne. “I think he did a really good job. He's heavy, he's hard, he gets to the net, he kills penalties, he's going to help us big time.”
The Senators pulled even at 17:05 when Xavier Bourgeault happily took advantage of a mulligan to beat new Amerks goalie Felix Sandstrom. Bourgeault wristed a shot from the slot that was blocked by Vsevold Komarov, but the puck came right back to him and before Sandstrom could recover, the puck was past him.
Moments before Dunne was stopped on his breakaway, rookie Konsta Helenius, the Sabres’ 2024 first-round pick making his North American pro debut, couldn’t hold the puck in at the line on a power play and it created breakaway for Zach Ostapchuk but Sandstrom got a pad on his shot to keep the game tied.
Second period: Senators 2, Amerks 1
Sandstrom kept the game tied for most of the period as Belleville certainly had the better of the scoring chances. He made two excellent saves on shots by Garrett Pilon and Nikolas Matinpalo during a Senators power play midway through the period, and when Dunne came out of the penalty box he had his third breakaway of the night, but his batting average dipped to .333 as Merilainen stopped him.
“I don't think I've had three breakaways in my career, so that was kind of goofy,” Dunne said with a smile.
Sandstrom then made a nice save on a breakaway by Ostapchuk with five minutes, but on a much more routine shot, he whiffed and Belleville took a 2-1 lead into the second intermission. Cole Reinhardt took a pass from Jan Jenik in the left circle and his shot seemed to go right through Sandstrom’s glove at 17:53.
Third period: Senators 3, Amerks 2
Perhaps energized by the late second-period goal, Belleville came out buzzing in the third and fired 10 shots at Sandstrom in the first nine minutes, and one of them found the mark as the Senators extended their lead to 3-1 at 4:17.
Rochester’s Nikita Novikov took a double-minor for high sticking and 91 seconds later, the Senators were up 3-1 as Phillipe Daoust’s was initially stopped from the blue paint, but Sandstrom could not control the rebound and Daoust was able to stuff his second chance inside the right post.
The Amerks twice came close to getting within a goal during a power play, but Brett Murray was just wide on a rebound attempt and Isak Rosen hit his second post of the game on a one-time from the right circle, finishing off an 0-for-5 night with the man advantage.
“I think we missed the net quite a bit with chances,” Leone said. “A lot of power-play goals are off broken plays and when you get teams hemmed in and I thought we had good looks and O-zone time, but I think to take it to the next level we gotta be a little bit harder in the blue paint.”
Shortly after the power play expired, Rosen ripped a shot that Merilainen got a pad on, but the puck came free right on the goal line and Tyson Kozak nudged it in with 6:54 left.
The Amerks continued to press, and Leone pulled Sandstrom with 2:17 remaining for a sixth skater, but they never really had a great chance to tie.
Amerks vs Senators notes
▶ Former Amerks standout defenseman Jeremy Davies was back in the building after he left the Sabres’ organization to sign with the Senators in the offseason. Davies was with Rochester the previous two seasons, playing in 66 games each year plus 19 more in the postseason. Counting the playoffs he totaled 25 goals and 66 points. Curiously, fans booed him when the arena PA announcer welcomed him back to Rochester during a break in the action.
▶ This was the start of a difficult opening segment of the schedule as the Amerks’ first nine games are against North Division opponents. It includes three games against Utica, all on the road, and three against reigning division champion Cleveland with two of those on the road.
▶ The Senators outshot the Amerks 31-24, and they cashed in on 2 of 6 power plays.
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades including 35 years as the full-time beat writer for the D&C, and he has written numerous books about the history of the team. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Rochester Amerks lose season opener in new head coach's debut
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